The present invention relates to an air conditioning apparatus and more particularly to an air conditioning apparatus of the type embedded within a ceiling of a room.
Hitherto, an air conditioning apparatus of this type has usually had a construction as shown in FIG. 1 of the attached drawings. That is, in this figure the reference numeral 1 designates a main body to be arranged within a ceiling A, 2 a panel to be exposed on the surface of ceiling A and having air suction grilles 3 in its middle part and air discharge grilles 4 at both sides thereof as shown in FIG. 2, 5 a filter disposed above air suction grille 3, 6 louver means provided at air discharge orifices 4, to adjust the discharged air, 7 an inner frame body provided within main body 1 to divide it into air suction and discharge spaces inside grills 3 and 4, and 7a and 7b designate inner and outer air passages formed within main body 1 respectively and being in communication with air suction and discharge grills 3 and 4, whereby the air sucked from air suction grills 3 is guided upwards through inner air passage 7a is deflected at the upper part of main body 1 and flows downwards through outer air passages 7b formed between main body 1 and inner frame 7 to reach air discharge grills 4. A blower 8 is provided in inner air passage 7a above air suction grilles 3, a heat exchanger 9 is provided in inner air passage 7a above blower 8, and a condensed water pan 10 is provided between heat exchanger 9 and blower 8, whereby there are provided draft passages between blower 8 and condensed water pan 10 and between condensed water pan 10 and heat exchanger 9. A condensed water guide plate 11 is provided to guide condensed water generated in heat exchanger 9 to condensed water pan 10, and a drain orifice 12 is connected with a drain pipeline (not shown) to discharge the condensed water accumulated in condensed water pan 10 to the outside. Pipe joints 13 and 14 are provided to connect an inlet side pipeline and an outlet side pipeline (not shown) in order to supply cold or hot water to heat exchanger 9. A seal material 15 is disposed between main body 1 and exposed ceiling panel 2 to adjust the gap formed therebetween at the time of mounting and simultaneously seal against the leakage of cold or hot air circulating in inner and outer air passages 7a and 7b.
The conventional air conditioning apparatus of the type embedded within a ceiling having a construction such as described above has been hitherto widely used for the reasons that since air discharge grills 4 are provided at both sides of exposed ceiling panel 2 the air streams blown out through grilles 4 into the room comprise two systems, as shown in FIG. 1 by arrows, the area able to be air conditioned is made large so that comfortable air conditioning without temperature irregularity in the room is obtainable, and that, since the arrangement of air discharge grilles 4, relative to air suction grilles 3 in exposed ceiling panel 2 is symmetric, even if the air conditioning apparatus is mounted between illuminators disposed symmetrically on the ceiling surface it can be made harmoneous with the illuminators, no problem being created from the viewpoint of interior decoration, etc. However, on the other hand, the conventional air conditioning apparatus described above suffers from the following defects. That is, by disposing exposed ceiling panel 2, blower 8, condensed water pan 10 and heat exchanger 9 in order from the bottom upwards, since condensed water pan 8 is at substantially the middle of inner air passage 7a, draft spaces have to be left between blower 8 and condensed water pan 10 and between condensed water pan 10 and heat exchanger 9, and further, since a draft space having a predetermined size is also required above heat exchanger 9 so as to deflect air from inner air passage 7a downwards to outer air passages 7b, the height of main body 1 must be quite large so that if the ceiling height is relatively low the air conditioning apparatus cannot be installed therein because of the height of main body 1; the construction is complicated since the apparatus is required to have inner frame body 7 in order to provide inner and outer air passages 7a and 7b; the air stream in inner air passage 7a is forced to detour around condensed water pan 10 so that the draft resistance encountered in air passages 7a and 7b is increased, etc.